Well, nearly ;-) All will be explained below…(and do remember all the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them)

This week I visited Easton Walled Garden and I thought you might like to virtually visit along with me.

These  gardens are a very different garden to those normally open to the public, all pristine and perfect. These are in the process of being rescued. They were once rather magnificent.: go here to see. Franklin D Roosevelt and his new wife Eleanor spent some of their honey moon here in 1905 ,and I can just imagine them in Edwardian dress wandering along the terraces in the evening light.

The mansion which the gardens complimented was demolished in 1951.  This, I think, is all that remains of it:

It had been requisitioned in the war and it was thought too expensive a process to repair and maintain it.  So it went. 

The estate and the gardens,along with the stables, some garden buildings and some of the walls sourrounding the garden were all that was left.

In   2001 the current owners - it is in its  14th generation    of continuous ownership- decided to attempt to restore the gardens which were overgrown and unrecognisable .

I have to admire their courage. It is going  be a long and expensive  process. if I were them I would be seeking out sponsorship deals from the large plant suppliers/nurseries ;-)

The garden is set in 100 acres of magnificent parkland,   in rolling countryside . The walled garden  is 12 acres in area. It’s setting is magnificent.

Looking from the point where the house stood  we see before us a  valley down to the River Witham and across to the rising bank on the other side .This valley  is very, very steep and the side facing the river has been terraced. (sadly, now not really planted up with anything but long grasses) In order to reach the river you can use  a flight of steps,or either one of two paths leading down the  vertiginous slopes. I took the steps. My 11 year old son, needless to say, rolled down the slope……

Spanning the river is a beautiful stone bridge

The river  Witham is not particularly wide at this point but it is quite overcrowded with reeds : another job for the brave owners to tackle..one day.

On this bank are embryonic mixed borders

 either side of the Yew Tunnel, which was once just a row of topiraied trees….

And an interesting weeping holly tree:

Patterns are cut into the long grass,

leading to the delicious buildings  set into the walls.

This one , the Tool Store, leans rather alarmingly…

This is a grain store decorated with  the appropriate  heraldic emblem of the owners family-

a wheatsheaf- in carved limestone.

This is the beautiful apple Store.

William Larkins, Mr Knightley’ s bailiff in Emma  would no doubt  approve ;-)

After ascending the steep hill back across the river  the areas around the  remaining buildings are a riot of colour to explore.

There is a pickery (a cutting garden)

filled with sweet peas

and annuals of every type.

There is also a vegetable garden

With beds of salads

and edible flowers…

And no proper vegetable garden of this age would be complete without a  hive

and an auricula theatre,( denuded of auriculas at this time of year)

again sporting the wheatsheaf emblem of the  family.

The family who own this estate are named Cholmeley ( pronounced “chumley”). Their connection with Jane Austen was through her aunt  by marriage, Jane Leigh Perrot nee Chomeley.

She was a niece of Montague Cholmeley who owned Easton . His  initials or those of his  his son , also named Montague, are emblazoned on much of the exisiting garden ironomngery: here  on a set of grand gates leading to the park

and here  on a smaller gate along the river side.

Jane Leigh-Perrot  was born in Barbados but was educated at a boarding school in England and spent muchof her  holidays here at Easton with her uncle and his family. She married James Leigh- Perrot, who was Mrs Austen’s brother.

Jane Austen’s aunt was of course  infamous for  being charged with grand larceny- an attempt, seemingly at blackmail, by some Bath haberdashers meant that  in 1799 she was accused of stealing a quantity of lace.

If found guilty she would no doubt have been transported to Botany Bay in Australia for 14 years- a virtual death sentence of a woman of her age.

When she was incarcerated in  Ilchester Gaol awaiting trial at Taunton, Montague  Cholmeley wrote her a series of  kind letters to her to help maintain her spirits. Here is an extract from one commenting on Mrs Austen’s generous but slightly deranged offer to have Jane and Cassandra  accompany their aunt in the gaol( in reality Jane Leigh-Perrot lived together with her husband in the squalid but humane lodgings with the Gaol Keeper and his  family and not in a jail cell.  Mrs Leigh Perrot declined the offer, recoiling in horror at the thought of  the Austen girls  having to spend time there.  Montagu appeared to agree with her decision:

You tell me that your good sister Austen has offered you one or both of her Daughters to continue  with you during your stay at that vile place. ,but you decline the kind offer as you cannot procure them Accommodation in the House with you and  you cannot let those Elegant Young Women be your Inmates in a Prison nor be subject to the inconveniences which you are obliged to put up with….

Anyone who called Jane Austen “elegant” was OK in my books …

Jane Leigh Perrot was found not guilty. And I’m not sure that Jane Austen had much affection for her aunt, certainly  from the evidence of her letters, but in any event, viewing the place where Jane’s aunt  spent her early summers was an interesting  way to spend a summer’s afternoon, speculating on her character while wandering around.

And I find the prospect of these gardens being fully restored bewitching: but even in their present state -much akin to a half finished  archaeological dig-they exert a certain charm , and evoke memories of eras long gone.